Breaking The Stigma

What

Breaking The Stigma is a research project in collaboration with PLANETART and Cross-TIC that aims to challenge the stigma of drug use via an immersive audio-visual experience. Overall, the goal of this project is to stimulate a more open discussion on stigmatization and encourage empathy, understanding, and open-mindedness.

Why

Stigmatization discourages seeking help and creates social barriers such as employment discrimination, housing challenges, or limited access to educational opportunities, that prevents fully participating in society. Moreover, stigmatization dehumanizes and marginalizes people who use drugs, preventing them from being seen as complex human beings with their own stories, struggles, and aspirations.

For more details on the motivation of this project you can refer to the project proposal.

How

The stigma is challenged by creating an audio-visual experience that portrays the personal story of a person grappling with drug use and the profound challenges they face, including the pervasive stigma that surrounds their journey.

In this project I follow the first three phases of the five step design thinking process by Dam and Siang (i.e. Emphasize, Define, Ideate) in which I aim to obtain a better understanding of people who use drugs and explore the visual and sonic design space to portray their journey. As such, the research presented here serves as foundation for a full production, that is, a live audio-visual installation.

Main outcomes of this research project are:

The Story - Based on real stories of people and their drug experiences, I have written a story that deals with our perception of cultural norms, how trauma can give rise to substance abuse and how stigmatization can spiral further into addiction, isolation and mental health problems.
The Prototypes - Based on the story I have created three audio-visual prototypes in which I explore various visual and sonic styles. Each of these prototypes shows an excerpt of one of the three acts from the story.

Below you can find a summary of the overall research process as well the aforementioned story and the three prototypes.

Research Process

On this page I have summarized the initial research process, which includes a field trip to Amsterdam, research on stigmatization, storytelling as well as sound and visual design. Outcome of this phase was a number of initial porotypes in TouchDesigner as well as a self-written story in 3 acts to serve as foundation for the audio-visual story telling of my project.

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The Story

Follow the journey of Elliot and her descent into addiction and isolation.

Based on real stories of people and their drug experiences, I have written a story that deals with our perception of cultural norms, how trauma can give rise to substance abuse and how stigmatization can spiral further into addiction, isolation and mental health problems.

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A Whole New World

Act 1

Elliot decides to limit substance use to alcohol, but this marks the beginning of a deep obsession with alcohol, leading to her first addiction.

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The Shame

Act 2

After a failed detox attempt, her substance abuse spirals further into addiction and isolation, plagued by shame and guilt.

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The Last Drop

Act 3

Elliot's life hangs in the balance as they overdose on heroin, facing a near-death experience that becomes a turning point.

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